


Gooseberry

by localfreak



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Multi, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-19
Updated: 2013-04-19
Packaged: 2017-12-08 22:58:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/767034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localfreak/pseuds/localfreak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Howard Stark had a lot of regrets, a lot of memories of moments when he should have done things differently, here is one of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gooseberry

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 12dayschristmas challenge 2012-13 on livejournal.
> 
> Additional notes: It has come to my attention some of my fic has been uploaded to a website I do not trust. I would like to make it abundantly clear I do not give permission for my work to be shared on any other website (linking to my fic's URL is fine), or uploaded anywhere without my knowledge and expressed permission. Quite frankly, if I want to upload it somewhere I'll do it myself.

Howard had never really thought of women as friends before Peggy, but then Peggy Carter wasn’t your average dame after all. She had balls, real balls to go around wearing that uniform and ordering around guys like she belonged there, in the middle of a war. He’d never tell her to her face, but she impressed him, but what impressed him more about her was the way she refused- point blank refused- to be charmed by him. He was good at charm, dammit, he knew how to make a girl smile (and gasp, and moan and do things their mothers wouldn’t like to know about) almost as well as he knew machines, and he was genius with those after all. 

For a while they’d hang out sometimes when they got the chance- both of them respected and outcast at the same time. He knew what they thought of him- rich civilian guy playing at war, and they called her a little girl out of place, but hey beggars can’t be choosers and the old General had his way and didn’t give two pins for protocol though he’d deny it to your face if you ever said it to him.

When Steve Rogers, skinny little volunteer with nothing to lose stepped into Erskine’s machine looking like he’d die in a cold breeze and ran out four times the size, well, Howard never could tell whether the attraction was just because the boy was cute or whether it was because he was Howard’s creation, and all that was left of Erskine’s magic elixir.

Steve was cute though, Howard couldn’t fathom how a kid brought up in Brooklyn could be so damn naïve but he was, absolutely genuine 100% wholesome, good natured, thoughtful and in love with Peggy Carter.

Howard didn’t know who he was more jealous of. He hid it all though and he and Peggy carried on as normal bantering and if he occasionally teased Steve a little more than he probably should well, it was just his way, they were all friends together right?

 

Howard burst into Peggy’s cupboard-cum-office one day to find the two of them sitting side by side, she was holding his hand. They both sprang away as he came in. 

Now Howard prided himself on being a pretty observant kind of guy, he was good working people out, always had been, you don’t get far in business without being able to work with people after all. That encounter was probably the furthest Steve had ever got with Peggy- I mean, call for a scandal but her buttons weren’t all done up, you know? A better man maybe would have announced his piece of news and made a discreet exit and let the two lovebirds get back to what they clearly wanted to be doing. But discreet exit and Howard Stark? Well, they didn’t belong in the same sentence. So he grabbed Steve by the shoulder, Peggy by the waist and all three of them were out of the base with the best liquor (or paraffin disguised as liquor) he could find. 

The next day Cap, disgustingly awake and un-hung-over, left for the next assignment, crashed a plane and- well, that was that.

Howard would remember that evening for a long time, playing each time different scenarios that meant that, whether with Peggy or with Howard, Steve wouldn’t have left the base that morning without seeing someone who loved him.


End file.
